


The Countdown

by nine3rds



Category: TOMORROW X TOGETHER | TXT (Korea Band)
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Humor, M/M, Romance, Romantic Comedy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-03
Updated: 2021-03-03
Packaged: 2021-03-16 01:53:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 15,982
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29817657
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nine3rds/pseuds/nine3rds
Summary: After being influenced by the stupid article Taehyun had him read, Beomgyu has decided to track down all of his past exes to see if the romance between them could be rekindled. It's been said that time's kindness could help people get better and Beomgyu hoped that was the case for the his exes. Unfortunately, finding and tracking down all of his exes proved to be a challenge. However, with the help of his neighbor, Yeonjun, the quest to find all of his exes wouldn't be too difficult ...but perhaps, through this search for his exes, Beomgyu found something better.
Relationships: Choi Beomgyu/Choi Yeonjun
Comments: 16
Kudos: 79





	The Countdown

**Author's Note:**

> Hi friends,
> 
> This fic is totally out of the norm for me. It's not a genre that I'm well-versed in but I wanted to try it out. I had fun writing these scenes out and I hope you enjoy it. It's inspired by the movie 'What's Your Number?", btw.
> 
> This is hella unbetaed, just so you know.
> 
> I was going to release this on my birthday, but I decided to let out a little early. I'm an impatient person.
> 
> Enjoy!

That was the problem with being friends with Kang Taehyun: he will bring studies, research and articles on things that were not normally thought about …like the average body count a person can have before it becomes _too_ difficult for them to find a husband.

According to Dr. Bang Si-hyuk, the average was 21 and unfortunately for Beomgyu, the article said that he was exactly one away from not being able to find a husband.

“Okay …,” Beomgyu stared at the article. He had read it a few times already, just in case he misread it before. He didn’t. It wasn’t a misprint – the number was **21**. He finally set the article down and looked up at Taehyun, “I don’t think article is credible at all. Why would anyone believe this?”

“It’s by Dr. Bang Si-hyuk, he does studies like this all the time and it’s all pretty accurate,” Taehyun pointed out as he circled the credentials at the bottom of the article. “He’s a very entertaining writer for a scientist, so he’s one of my favorites to read.” Taehyun looked up at Beomgyu. The expression on Beomgyu’s face caused Taehyun’s eyebrow to quirk up, “What’s your number, Beomgyu?”

Beomgyu glared at Taehyun, “What’s yours first?”

“Seven,” Taehyun said plainly with a casual shrug, “I’m dating Kai right now. He’s lucky number seven. It’s that soulmate magnetism.” He nodded slowly at Beomgyu, “So, what’s your number?”

Beomgyu covered his face with his hands and whispered the number so softly that he knew Taehyun wouldn’t have heard it. As he lowered his hands from his face, his face paled as he realized, “I have to marry number 21, Taehyun. The next person I sleep with, I have to marry.”

“Why did you jump to that conclusion just now?” Taehyun stared at Beomgyu, “You always go from point A to point Z at the flick of a wr—”

“Taehyun, that’s easy for you to say,” Beomgyu gestured at him up and down, “You’re literally in a relationship with your soulmate, your career is flourishing and you still have 14 numbers, just in case things go south.” He knocked on the wooden table between them, “They won’t though. You two are so in love that it makes me believe in love.”

“Love is real,” Taehyun said before he turned his attention back to Beomgyu, “So, don’t sleep with anyone until you fall in love with them. You can do that, right?”

Beomgyu nodded, “Besides, I have so much experience in turning people down all the time. It won’t even be an issue, I won’t hit number 21. It won’t happen.”

“Let’s hope you keep that enthusiasm up at your brother’s wedding rehearsal tonight.”

“It won’t even be an issue, Taehyun,” Beomgyu repeated as he grinned, “I won’t even drink tonight.”

* * *

Beomgyu wasn’t sure what time it was when he woke up.

What he did remember was that during his brother’s wedding rehearsal, he had attempted to write down all of his exes’ names and the further he went down the list, the more he drank. He was sure that the toast he made would end up on youtube later – he could vaguely remember his brother laughing so hard that he fell off his chair but after that, he couldn’t remember anything else at the actual wedding rehearsal Though, he could remember that he went to an afterparty with some of his brother’s friends …which led to more drinking …

“Fuck,” Beomgyu whispered as he realized that the bed was warm, even without the blanket. He stared at the person beside him and then closed his eyes as he cursed himself for this. He rolled out of bed, uncaring of the person beside him as he crawled over to the bathroom. He sat on the floor of the bathroom as he immediately called ‘Kang Taehyun’.

“It’s like 1pm on a Saturday,” Taehyun skipped the warm greetings when he answered the phone. Beomgyu could hear the sound of waves in the background; he swore he could hear Kai let a yelp out and that signature dolphin shriek come out too. “Kai and I are at the beach right now. So, the signal’s pretty bad, Beomgyu-hyung.”

“I messed up.”

Taehyun’s laugh was _too_ happy for Beomgyu’s liking. It didn’t help that his hangover had started to sink in. “I know you did,” Taehyun stated matter-of-factly, “You shouldn’t have drunk so much.”

“Why didn’t you stop me?” Beomgyu whined into the phone as he put his palm to his forehead, “You could have dragged me away from this.”

“I tried,” Taehyun said bluntly, “Every time I tried to pull you away, you spit on me. While I normally would have just carried you away, you spit on _Kai_.”

Beomgyu did not remember that, but then again, he barely remembered anything that happened after the wedding rehearsal. Alcohol was bad and he would never drink it again; he hoped that enthusiasm would last longer than the previous promise he had.

“But that’s number 21,” Beomgyu sighed, “I said I would marry the next person I slept with and …,” he peered out of the bathroom as the mystery man stood up. Beomgyu paled, “It’s my old coworker.” His face scrunched in annoyance.

“You know, I knew it would happen eventually, but I did not think it would happen this quickly. You’ve amazed even me. Congratulations on your marriage,” Taehyun said into the phone and then Beomgyu could faintly hear Kai calling out to him. He fully heard Taehyun say, “Oh, Beomgyu-hyung’s getting married, Kai! Yeah, he found Mr. 21.” Taehyun’s voice turned back to Beomgyu, “He says congrats. He’s very excited and wonders if we’re invited to the wedding.”

“Shut up, I’m not getting married,” Beomgyu snapped.

“But that’s what you said last time we spoke,” Taehyun reminded him and Beomgyu cursed the younger man’s impeccable memory. While Taehyun laughed and got into a muffled conversation with Kai, Beomgyu decided it was best to hang up and figure out how to get this intruder out of his apartment. It sounded as though it would be easier said than done at this point.

“Okay,” Beomgyu said as he started to gather his old coworker’s clothes. He didn’t want to try and remember what happened; if anything, he would have rather had his memory wiped from everything that could happened. After he collected the scattered clothes, he shoved it to the man, “You should get going soon, right? Ther—”

His old coworker cut him off as he placed his hands on Beomgyu’s cheeks. He smiled at him and said, “I never thought I’d get this chance. You never seemed interested in me and I just can’t believe it, Beomgyu.” He leaned in for a kiss and Beomgyu moved away, immediately. “I was thinking,” the man continued, “We could go to dinn—”

Beomgyu thanked the Heavens for the timing – **someone knocked at the door**.

As Beomgyu dashed away from his old coworker, he opened the door. The vibrant hair color took him by surprise before he realized that this was his neighbor from across the hall. He’d never realized how tall his neighbor was.

“Hi, um, 5B,” the man began, “I’m your neighbor. I accidentally locked myself outside of my apartment, keys, phone and everything is stuck in there. I was wondering if I could make a quick phone call to get our apartment manager over here?”

At first, Beomgyu wanted to decline his neighbor’s request. For all of the time that Beomgyu had lived in these apartments, this was the first time that he had a full conversation with the man in 5D; he’d lived here for nearly three years and the most they would interact would simply be with quick “hellos” in the hallway and polite waves from across the hall. It would have been very easy to tell the neighbor ‘no’ and moved on with the rest of his day …but then he heard the rustling of clothes, pants being put on and he decided to take the chance. At least, he wouldn’t have to deal with his creepy coworker alone.

“Sure,” Beomgyu said as he stepped aside to welcome his pink-haired neighbor into his apartment. “Here, let me get my phone. Just, uh, make yourself at home,” Beomgyu gestured to the couch for his neighbor to sit in. He would have been friendlier and more welcoming, but he had a different pressing matter to navigate through.

As his neighbor carefully walked around to sit on the couch, Beomgyu tried to find his phone but his attention turned to the ex-coworker who now joined them in the living room. Beomgyu sighed before he walked over to the man and decided to kick him out, “Hi, you need to g—”

The man leaned in and kissed Beomgyu. Beomgyu was sure he heard his neighbor snicker at the expression that made its way onto his face, but he was too busy trying to break this unwanted kiss to really pay attention to the other man. Finally, Beomgyu pushed his coworker off. His expression must have said more than he intended to, but his old coworker had never been the brightest.

“I think, you and I should have dinner tonight. I’ll be getting off at around 5 and I want to take you to this fancy little res—”

“No, I don’t think I can make it …,” Beomgyu started as he looked away. Perhaps, the panic was evident in his eyes and maybe that panic had caused him to short circuit. Normally, Beomgyu was quick thinker; he could lie his way out of something, anything if he was honest. Yet at this very moment, he could barely come up with anything to say to help ward the man away.

“Oh,” Beomgyu heard his neighbor’s voice speak up from the couch, “We’ve got that tenants’ meeting later tonight.” The man with pink hair leaned back from where he sat and looked over to them before he pointed at Beomgyu, “Remember? It’s mandatory. Every tenant is required to be there. Our manager swore there’d be a penalty charge for us if we miss it.” He looked at Beomgyu with bright eyes as he slowly nodded. Beomgyu looked at him and nodded along as he got the telepathic message his neighbor just sent to him.

“Yes, yes,” Beomgyu said as he pushed his old coworker away. He sidestepped from him and stepped closer to the couch to build the distance between him and his unfortunate hook-up partner. He snapped his fingers before he clapped his hands together. His gaze returned back to his coworker, “Sorry, you heard it here. I’ve got that very important, very mandatory meeting and I can’t get out of it. We’re trying to evict a man with a horse.” Whatever that meant. He put on the most pitiful expression as he nodded, “You know how that is.”

“Oh, okay then,” his old coworker said as Beomgyu ushered him out of the apartment. As he quietly edged the man away, his intention was clear; the man gave Beomgyu one more hug before he exited the apartment. Out of politeness, Beomgyu stood in front of the door as he watched the man leave and head down the stairs. Coincidentally, he caught the door to 5D open.

That was _weird_.

Didn’t his neighbor say he locked himself out?

Although Beomgyu kept quiet, his expression turned into one of curiosity as he watched someone exit the apartment across from him. A very attractive, very tall man – Beomgyu assumed that the man could have easily been a model, but then again, it made sense considering the man sitting on his couch was just as attractive. He tilted his head to the side as the unknown man left apartment 5D.

“Well …,” Beomgyu said as he slowly turned to face his neighbor sitting on the couch. He put a hand on his hip as he said, “You know how you locked yourself out of the apartment? Couldn’t your friend who had just left helped out you and opened the door for you?”

Beomgyu heard his neighbor laugh, almost an embarrassed on as he stood up from the couch. He smiled up at Beomgyu, “Well, you see … I had a _situation_. It was very much like the one you just had with your visiting friend there and I just needed to find a way to leave my place, just for a few minutes until _my_ friend left.”

“So, you basically used my apartment to hide from your one-night stand?”

“Not hide, more like a temporary displacement until they left my apartment,” the neighbor said as he pushed himself off the couch. He walked around the couch as he gave Beomgyu a grin, “I had other options to take but I think this one ended up being the one that worked out for the both of us, you know. Two birds, one stone. You got your monkey off your back and I got my monkey off mine – a win-win situation, right?”

“Don’t call them monkeys. They’re people.”

“Questionable,” the neighbor said as he tilted his head toward Beomgyu. He walked over to the door and smiled at the shorter man, “It was good to meet you officially, 5B.”

“It’s Beomgyu.”

“Well, it was good to meet you too, Beomgyu. My name is Yeonjun,” his neighbor finally introduced himself as he reached for the doorknob. He slowly turned the doorknob to open the door and take a look down the hall; he turned his head left and then to the right before he turned back to grin at Beomgyu, “I think, the coast is clear now. So, I really am thankful that you let me in.”

“You shouldn’t be hooking up with so many people if you can’t take responsibility about turning them away,” Beomgyu pointed out as he gave Yeonjun a minor, unwarranted lecture, “Hooking up is fine, but at least take the responsibility of seeing them out.”

Yeonjun scoffed as he rose an eyebrow, “Sure. Next time, I’ll be sure to make them breakfast before I sent them away. I’ll even put a video up on youtube just to prove it to you, Beomgyu. Though, I don’t think my breakfast after hook-up meal will garner as much views as your toast did on youtibe.”

“Why do you know I made a toast and why the hell is it on youtube already?”

"Oh," Yeonjun grinned as he stepped out of the door frame, "I'm from a family of cops. I have everyone in the building under google alerts. So, I get all of the juicy gossip, you know? It’s not that hard to dig up dirt on people if you really wanted to." He laughed before he grinned as he rose his eyebrows, "Neighbor in 3E? He's been trying to marry his dog for years."

"No," Beomgyu said in shock as he put his hand on his chest. He feigned an expression of shock, "Not Panchito! I love Panchito."

"Me too," Yeonjun said as he shook his head, "Luckily, it's illegal but we need to protect Panchito." He smiled and then gave Beomgyu a short bow, "Thank you for letting me into your apartment for a few minutes. I owe you a favor. If your creepy partners come in again, feel free to knock on my door."

Beomgyu shook his head and rejected the offer, "No, thanks. Have a good life, Yeonjun." He closed the door as his neighbor left. "Must be nice to be that handsome," Beomgyu muttered as he walked over to the couch and flopped himself on there. He lay there quietly before he took a deep breath - he faintly smelled the cologne that his neighbor wore, it had a very soft yet memorable scent. "He probably has a bigger number than me," Beomgyu decided.

* * *

“I can’t believe you came all the way to Seoul to try cake,” Beomgyu sat across from his older brother and his fiancée. As much as he wanted to be a brat, it was cute to see his older brother so happy and so in love. One day, Beomgyu decided that he would have that too.

“You’re the one who recommended this place,” his brother reminded him, “Besides, after that very embarrassing wedding rehearsal, you owe us.”

“Right …,” Beomgyu nodded slowly as he looked at the slices of cake placed in front of them. There were so many flavors, he couldn’t even wrap his mind around it. His eyes bounced from left to right, unsure and uncertain if he would even want to try these slices. His face scrunched as he noted odd mint-colored slice of cake – _that better not be a mint-chocolate cake, what kind of monster would pick that_?

“We figured we’d ask you for help with the cake,” his brother started as his expression softened into a gentle smile at his fiancée. Then turned his expression back to normal as he looked at Beomgyu, “You’re the most particular person that I have ever known. So, your picky palate is needed here.”

“First of all,” Beomgyu pushed away the mint-colored cake, “That’s an immediate member of the reject pile. No one wants to eat toothpaste at a wedding, hyung.”

“Like I said, you have one of the most particular tastes,” his brother repeated, “So, I’m glad we could nix that flavor out.” He turned to the baker that had begun their cake consultation and explained the elimination of all mint flavored cakes, even the peppermint flavored cakes just in case. Their cake consultant quickly jotted down the notes and removed all cakes with any dollop of mint in – Beomgyu wondered if their consultant knew they would be working overtime today.

By the time the consultant headed back into the kitchen to bring the 5th round of cake slices and frosting, Beomgyu’s gaze had fallen on a customer that walked in. His eyebrow quirked up as he kept looking at the male customer with long blonde hair walked in. _Why did he know him?_ Beomgyu’s eyes squinted as he looked at the man. He must have been staring so hard that his brother’s fiancée elbowed him gently, “Do you know him?”

“I’m not sure,” Beomgyu whispered to her, “He looks so familiar, but I can’t seem to put my finger on why I know him. Like, he looks just like someone that I know.”

“You dated him,” his brother’s voice chimed in with a quick nod, “Like right when you started college, remember?”

“No. Why do you remember?”

“Because you swore you were in love with him and would marry him,” his brother reminded him of the overly romantic beliefs of past Beomgyu. “You two broke up within the first two months. You called me to pick you up and take you home because you swore that you would never heal your broken heart from such pain,” he even tried his best to imitate the dramatic tones that Beomgyu’s voice would have taken. He laughed before he turned his gaze to the man, “He looks very different though. Like, he really took care of himself. You should go talk to him. You don’t even have a date for our wedding.”

“Oh …yeah.”

“Hey,” Beomgyu greeted his ex-boyfriend with a warm smile and a friendly wave, “I did not expect to see you here, you know?”

The man stared at Beomgyu for a few seconds as if he was trying to register who he was talking to. He blinked a few times before he said, “Beomgyu, Choi Beomgyu.” He gave Beomgyu a smile and said, “It’s been such a long time. You look amazing, just like before.”

“Yeah, it has been a few years, hasn’t it?” Beomgyu smiled and returned the compliment, “You look amazing too, though. What a coincidence running into you here.”

“Yeah, definitely,” the man continued the conversation and then smiled, “My fiancé is actually on his way here. He’s running a little late from the lab, but as he’ll be here soon. I’ll introduce you to him. We’re getting ready to finalize our wedding cake.”

_Oh._

“Really?” Beomgyu smiled, a forced brightness in his expression. He let out a soft chuckle, “Well, I hope you two find the perfect cake for your wedding.” He paused and said, “The mint one is apparently their most popular one for weddings. So, you might want to try that.”

“That was quick,” Beomgyu’s older brother remarked when he returned, “What happened? Did you word vomit again?” At the remark, his soon to be sister-in-law elbowed him before she scolded, “Don’t be mean, honey.”

“He’s getting married,” Beomgyu explained, “He’s waiting for his fiancé to come back from lab. So, unfortunately, I won’t be asking him to be my date to your wedding.” He frowned as he stole a gaze at his ex-boyfriend (who was now in the middle of hugging his fiancé) and he hummed a quiet thought before he looked at his brother, “Time did him really well.”

“I don’t like that expression on your face,” Beomgyu’s brother said between bites of cake. He pointed the fork at Beomgyu, “Please tell me that you’re not planning something weird.”

“No, nothing weird,” Beomgyu scoffed as he reached for a fork. He stabbed the fork into a nearby cake slice and smirked as he said, “But I promise you that I’ll have a date by the time your wedding happens and that date will most likely be my endgame. Or, I’ll make sure he’ll be my endgame.”

“Yeah,” his brother shook his head and flatly said, “I don’t like where this is headed.”

* * *

  
With a bottle of soju and the internet, Beomgyu decided that he would track down every single one of his ex-boyfriends. There were only 21 names on that list – two of them (his coworker and the ex-boyfriend he ran into at the bakery) were already voted off the list – so it shouldn’t take him too long to track all of them down, right?

“The power of the internet,” Beomgyu grinned as he turned his computer on. That was the beauty of this day and age, everyone was just a few clicks away from being found; everyone was so distant and yet with the power of a search engine, he could find them and see how close they were …at least, that’s what he intended. Even with the list of his exes, it proved to be a little bit more difficult than just a google search – a few of their names were far _too_ common and a single search on some of their names came up with thousands of search results with people he had never met.

“Why is this so difficult? Alright, alright, next name.” Beomgyu muttered as he typed in another name. His eyes opened wide as he read, “Eleven million results?” He shook his head, “Nope, nope. We’re not dealing with that. I need to get more specific, right?” He retyped the name and added, ‘Indie band guitarist’ (he couldn’t remember the band’s name because always thought that their only redeeming factor was that the lead singer was attractive), ‘Seoul University’ and ‘lip piercing’. His face defaulted as the search results did not change any further, “What the hell?”

Beomgyu let out a sigh as he ruffled his hair. He reached for the bottle of soju. With a simple lift his hand, he toasted the bottle to the sky in a prayer that something would work.

It didn’t.

Beomgyu’s search results led to nothing and ended with him fast asleep on his couch.

* * *

“ _Remember, I told you not to put it there. Check under the bed_.”

Beomgyu woke up at the sound of voices across the hallway. He heard the chuckle of his neighbor, Yeonjun and some brief conversation he had with someone. There was nothing to lose at this point, Beomgyu had decided as he rolled off his sofa. He grabbed the list of names as he opened the door.

“Uhh, hi,” Beomgyu started. Whatever preconceived conversation he intended to have was blown away as he was greeted with his half-dressed neighbor, picking up the newspaper from the ground. Beomgyu did not mean to stare, but if he was, he was doing it respectfully, _of course_. He cleared his throat, “Sorry, I know that you’ve got company over right now and it’s really inconvenient timing.”

“It’s good to see you, 5B,” Yeonjun grinned as he leaned against his door frame. He tilted his head inside and shouted to whomever his guest was, “You might have left it on the counter when we came in last night. It’s probably just there.” Yeonjun ran a hand through his hair as he listened to his guest say that he found it; he grinned and then turned his attention back to Beomgyu, “You look like you’ve had a rough night, Beomgyu.” He leaned in and rose his eyebrows, “Did you need me to help get someone out of your apartment?”

“No, that’s not it,” Beomgyu shook his head as he walked over to where Yeonjun was positioned. He held the list of names out to Yeonjun as he asked, “Remember when you said you could dig up dirt on people? I was wondering if you could help me find the people here?”

Beomgyu tried not to stare as he watched his neighbor read through the list. Why did guys that attractive have to be such fuckboys for? He let out a deep sigh as he waited for Yeonjun’s response.

“Why?” Yeonjun asked as he turned his head to the side to look at Beomgyu.

“I just thought that they deserve a second chance …,” Beomgyu trailed off, unsure of how to explain the situation to someone who clearly was not interested.

“No,” Yeonjun shook his head before he shrugged, “I refuse to participate in this type of crazy.”

“Crazy?” Beomgyu spat out before he turned to face Yeonjun completely, “This isn’t crazy. I’m not even crazy. I just wanted to see if these guys were worth a second chance.”

“You know, they probably broke up with you for a reason and I refuse to continue an escapade for track down your exes,” Yeonjun said as he pointed to Beomgyu, “That’s just crazy.”

“Hold up,” Beomgyu held a hand up at Yeonjun, “What makes you think that _they_ broke up with _me_?”

Yeonjun leaned in a gave Beomgyu the most charming grin as he said, “Because you seem like the type of person who tries to make a bad thing work out of the sheer challenge of it.”

“Excuse me,” Beomgyu’s tone held offense to it as he glared at Yeonjun, “That’s called optimism.”

“And I call it crazy,” Yeonjun insisted.

Beomgyu took the paper away from Yeonjun and started to make his way back to his own apartment. He shook his head and before he closed the door to his apartment, he turned to Yeonjun, “I knew you’d be an ass about this. You could have just said no.”

Yeonjun grinned, “If you ever want to try something new, you can always call me.”

“Jerk.”

“See you, 5B.”

Beomgyu slammed the door when he returned to his apartment. Even if Yeonjun may have been right about how weird it was to chase down his exes, he didn’t have to be rude about it. He put the list of names down on his counter. With his arms folded over his chest, Beomgyu’s brows knitted and he pouted; his eyes sharpened, glared into the ground as he went over the conversation he just had with Yeonjun. As he tapped his foot on the ground, an idea came to him. His lips pulled into a smile as he grabbed his jacket and slid it on.

If anyone asked, Beomgyu was a genius.

With his jacket on, he crossed from his apartment over to Yeonjun’s. He knocked on the door frantically, panicked as he was nearly punching it. “Yeonjun-hyung, Yeonjun-hyung,” he cried out as he continued to knock the door, “Hurry, Yeonjun-hyung, hurry.”

When Yeonjun opened the door, he stared at Beomgyu with the most confused expression. “Beomgyu?” Yeonjun asked as he rose an eyebrow, “Wha—”

“Oh my god, finally,” Beomgyu said as he entered Yeonjun’s apartment, “They just called me and our mom fell in the shower! They said she got hurt. I tried calling you a few times.” He pushed his way past Yeonjun and through his apartment. Beomgyu stared at Yeonjun’s guest, a different yet equally attractive man as the one that he had seen the other time, and gave a quick bow of apology, “Sorry, I know you guys probably had a lovely night, but Yeonjun-hyung and I need to go. Our mom literally fell in the shower and they’re drying her off before they take her to the hospital.”

Beomgyu remembered that Yeonjun was half-dressed, so he picked up loose clothing articles in Yeonjun’s apartment. A shirt, shoes that matched, a jacket and whatever else he thought looked like they belonged to one outfit – he shoved all of that into Yeonjun’s arms as he turned to the other male in the apartment, “Hyung will call you later, I’m sure but we really have to go. It’s a huge emergency. Mom’s literally being carted off into the hospital.”

With the final excuse, Beomgyu gently ushered Yeonjun out into the hallway. He closed the door behind them and pushed Yeonjun into his apartment. Once they entered Beomgyu’s apartment, he dropped the act and gave Yeonjun the most prideful look that he could muster.

Yeonjun nodded with respect, “I’m impressed, Beomgyu.”

“I’ll help you get away from your nighttime visitors,” Beomgyu offered, “And you help me track down the people on my list.” Carefully, Yeonjun walked around Beomgyu’s apartment with quick comments about how big and spacious this place was compared to his. Beomgyu rolled his eyes and added, “And you can use my apartment to hide out too.”

With the biggest smile he could muster, Yeonjun turned Beomgyu and said, “You’ve got yourself a deal.”

* * *

“So, basically,” Yeonjun started but stopped as the waiter dropped off both of their bowls of ramen. He smiled a quick thank you to the waiter before he turned his attention to the ramen. As he prepped himself to eat, he looked over at Beomgyu, “You want me to find all of the names on the list? But like why is it so important to find them?”

Beomgyu wiped his chopsticks down with a napkin. He thought of his answer as he cleaned his chopsticks and before he started eating, he told Yeonjun, “I think they deserve a second chance and I don’t know, maybe one of them was always supposed to be my one, you know?”

“Why don’t you just get a new boyfriend?” Yeonjun asked between slurps of ramen. Beomgyu had never seen anyone eat ramen with so much enthusiasm and joy; it was cute to see someone enjoy something as simple as a bowl of ramen.

“Of course, you would say **_that_** ,” Beomgyu said as he rolled his eyes, “I don’t know, I just don’t want to go around and find someone new. It’s kind of hard to just find someone you’re completely compatible with and decide that you’re meant to be. You don’t just find people like that.”

“That’s because you’re thinking too hard,” Yeonjun pointed his chopsticks at Beomgyu, “Didn’t I say you were some kind of crazy? You’re looking to the past to find a relationship that will last forever – that doesn’t make any sense. If they didn’t work out before, why do you assume it will work out now?”

“Because time changes people and a lot of the time, it might even be for the better?” Beomgyu shrugged as he finally started to eat his ramen. While he quietly ate his ramen, he realized that Yeonjun had already finished.

“So, you want me to just find information on these guys?”

“Address, phone numbers, anything that will help me get into contact with them,” Beomgyu instructed, “As long as they’re within travel distance. I don’t mind take a car or a train, but I’m a little iffy about taking a plane.”

“It honestly would be easier to just find a new boyfriend,” Yeonjun muttered as he read over the list again. He looked up from the paper and nodded toward Beomgyu, “Choi Soobin? You’ve highlighted that name and underlined like three times. Was he the one that got away?”

“Something like that,” Beomgyu flushed at the memory, “But if you find him, let me know right away.” He peered over, reading the names on the list again as he said, “Honestly, there is no preferred order for this but I just need to find someone before my brother’s wedding.”

“Okay,” Yeonjun shrugged, “I’ll do my best to find your list of exes. Seems like it could be interesting.”

Beomgyu rolled his eyes, “My future love life should be interesting.”

“Future love life filled with people of the past,” Yeonjun scoffed, “This is like one of life lessons just waiting to be taught.”

“Don’t you have a job or something to get to?”

Yeonjun laughed before he drank his soda, “I do, but my shows don’t start until later tonight.”

“Your shows?”

“I’m a dancer,” Yeonjun said proudly. There was this confidence about him that Beomgyu couldn’t decide if he liked or thought was annoying. Regardless, it led to Beomgyu rolling his eyes. Yeonjun laughed once more, obviously amused with Beomgyu’s expressions.

“Like a topless one?” Beomgyu asked curiously.

“Sometimes,” Yeonjun admitted before he put his elbows on the table and leaned forward to ask, “Why? Did you want a private dance, Beomgyu?” He rose his eyebrows as his eyes moved up and down Beomgyu, smirked with confidence before he bit his bottom lip.

If this was under different circumstances, that would have worked but since Beomgyu had learned the activities that went on in apartment 5D, he wasn’t interested. Not like that. He shook his head, “No. I’ll pass. I’m not interested in seeing you gyrate shirtless.”

“That’s too bad,” Yeonjun chuckled, “Offer’s going to be on the table for when you realize this ‘exes of the past scavenger hunt’ is on the more ridiculous side of things. Trust me, I’m more fun.”

* * *

Beomgyu felt the pressure from Taehyun’s gaze …it was more of a glare than a gaze. He cleared his throat as he walked past Taehyun. He busied himself looking at the things on the shelves; he forgot what aisle they were in and what they were supposed to be looking for – who could blame him, Taehyun’s glare was enough to freeze a man in his tracks.

“So, you asked your neighbor to help you track down your exes?” Taehyun asked with a tone that made Beomgyu wince. The blonde stared at Beomgyu, his eyes squinted as he stood watching the older man. “I don’t know whether I should be mad at you for doing this or be impressed that you’ve found a loophole to protect your ‘ _number_ ’,” he finally said.

“Loophole, Taehyun,” Beomgyu said as he picked up a box of chocolates, “Be impressed by it instead of being angry. If it ends well, I’ll have a date for my brother’s wedding and then you can start inviting me into double-dates with you and Kai.”

Not that Taehyun and Kai ever tried to alienate Beomgyu from anything but being the third wheel always felt off. Maybe that loneliness had been the root of Beomgyu’s problems. There was a desire to be wanted, but he had such bad luck with his past relationships. Hook-ups were easier, there wasn’t anything that needed to be followed up with.

“Look, you’re always welcomed to just hang out with us. Even if I’m _allegedly_ mean to you, we love having you with us,” Taehyun looked at Beomgyu before he admitted, “You’re my best friend. Who else would put up with the amount of shit you’ve done?”

“Excuse me, you were part of like sixty percent of the shit that I’ve done,” Beomgyu teased as he picked up a bag of gummy bears. Then, he decided to pick up another bag of gummy bears. “College was a good time,” Beomgyu smiled as he felt the faint vibration of his phone. He put the bags of gummy bears into the cart as he reached for his phone with his freehand. “Oh,” Beomgyu said with shock as he read the text. He looked up at Taehyun, “He found number 6 on the list.”

“Number 6?”

“Remember when you were in that magic club during your first year?”

Taehyun stared at Beomgyu as he attempted to figure out what the older man was getting at. He tilted his head to the side before he snapped his fingers. His mouth formed a small ‘O’ as he said, “He found the magician you dated?” Taehyun laughed, almost cackled as he remembered, “You’re kidding me. You’re really going to go try the magician again?”

“Look, maybe time did him well?” Beomgyu shrugged, “It’s a mystery.” He clapped his hands together before he quoted, “Magic’s in the mystery, right?”

“Oh, please tell me what happens after you meet him.”

When Beomgyu entered the seedy bar, he scanned the busy bodies in search for someone. He was thankful that Yeonjun’s hair was so easy to spot, even in a crowd of people. Beomgyu walked over to where Yeonjun had been nursing a beer.

“Hey,” Beomgyu said as he took the seat across from Yeonjun, “You worked fast, man. I didn’t think you’d find anyone on the list that quickly.”

“You underestimate me,” Yeonjun said as he tilted his bottle at Beomgyu. He smiled at him and said, “It actually wasn’t that difficult to find him, especially since he’s got a website called ‘SuperSexyMagic.com’. It has his hours for magic.”

“Perfect,” Beomgyu smiled before he took Yeonjun’s beer bottle, “You can go now.”

“What? Leave now? And miss the show?” Yeonjun asked he took back the beer bottle from Beomgyu. He pointed the head of the bottle to the bartender who was casually pulling a quarter out of someone’s ear. “He’s been working the cro—”

At the sight of the man behind the bar, Beomgyu’s excited smile dropped. He shook his head as he scooted out of the booth. “I don’t think we need to talk to him,” Beomgyu said as he started to leave the bar. He didn’t even wait to see the bartender reveal the hidden card under the customer’s phone. This was a bust – he had his hopes up that time had helped the bartender turn into someone that Beomgyu could see a future with, but that a fool’s hope. Maybe this whole plan was stupid. Maybe he should have just dropped it, Beomgyu contemplated as he left the bar.

“Yo,” Yeonjun called out as he jogged to catch up with Beomgyu. He put a hand on Beomgyu’s shoulder, “Where are you going? I thought you were ready to meet him.”

“I don’t think it’s worth it,” Beomgyu said with a frown.

“Why? Because he’s a bartender?” Yeonjun asked skeptically, “I was a bartender before. There’s nothing wrong with that, you know?”

“No, not because he’s a bartender but because he’s _still_ a bartender,” Beomgyu explained, “He’s exactly where he was when we dated in college. Wakes up at noon, bartends until 3 AM, pulls coins out of people – cycle, rinse and repeat.”

Yeonjun tilted his head to the right as he twisted his lips, trying to figure out what to say. He sighed and said, “Maybe that’s why it didn’t work out with you two? He’s complacent with easy and you’re looking for progress. Not every one of these will work out.”

“I know, but I was really hoping that everything would work out easily.”

“Between you and me, I think you’re too hot for that guy anyway,” Yeonjun smirked as he walked alongside Beomgyu. He nudged the younger man with his elbow, “He’s the one that lost out on dating Choi Beomgyu.” Yeonjun put an arm around Beomgyu’s shoulders, “Your ex was lame, but I’m not. Come on, we’re going out.” Yeonjun paused and looked at Beomgyu, “Don’t worry, I’m not going to hit on your or try to get into your pants tonight. We’re going out to try and make you feel better about dating a loser.”

Beomgyu tried not to smile at Yeonjun’s effort. It seemed that Beomgyu’s initial impression of Yeonjun was wrong – the fuckboy title he’d placed Yeonjun earlier didn’t seem to apply at the genuine efforts that was being put. He sighed and nodded, “Okay, but no drinking. I can’t afford to make another mistake. I don’t want to add another name to the list.”

Yeonjun stared at Beomgyu and then laughed, “Is that the reason why you’re tracking your exes? You don’t want to go over 21 bodies?” He didn’t let Beomgyu say anything else, then he started to laugh. At first, it was a soft laugh and then it expanded into a full body laugh as he leaned on Beomgyu for support, “You’re freaking hilarious, Beomgyu.”

“Why are you laughing? This is a serious matter.”

“No, it’s actually not,” Yeonjun shook his head, “Who cares about your body count anyway?”

“Decent guys care about it,” Beomgyu pouted as he folded his arms over his chest, “Besides, there was a study about it and if I go over 21, I’m never going to find a husband.”

Yeonjun shook his head, “I’m way over 21.”

“But you’re not looking for a husband?”

“Nah, not yet. Haven’t found anyone interesting enough yet,” Yeonjun enlightened Beomgyu before he directed the younger man to move toward the right. “Besides, if you meet someone that wants to be your husband, I don’t think he’ll care about your body count. I know I wouldn’t care.”

Beomgyu rolled his eyes again, “If we ever get married, I’ll hold you to that.” He moved toward the right like Yeonjun had started to direct him toward, “But you and I won’t because we’re not compatible and it’d be weird.”

“You’re right, you can’t take the most eligible bachelor out of Seoul yet,” Yeonjun agreed. He walked Beomgyu to the front of the busy club, “Not when we’re about to go dancing. It’ll be fun. You’ll get your mind off your exes and your numbers.”

* * *

Beomgyu was just thankful that he didn’t wake up with a hangover. To be fair, Yeonjun had surprisingly been really good at protecting Beomgyu at the club – Beomgyu stared at the ceiling as he went over the events of the previous night, Yeonjun really was not as bad as he thought he was. He closed his eyes for a second before he finally decided to get out of bed. As he reached for a shirt to put on, Beomgyu’s eyes fell on the pink-haired man asleep on the couch.

“What are you doing here?” Beomgyu asked as he put his shirt on, “And why aren’t you in your own apartment, Yeonjun-hyung?”

“I’m waiting for …Ga-Woon?” Yeonjun said as he pulled the sofa cushion closer to him. He nuzzled his face against it as he continued with half-asleep words, “Yeah, Ga-Woon. I’m waiting for him to leave my apartment.”

“You literally hooked up with someone after we went dancing?” Beomgyu asked, almost impressed at how fast Yeonjun could move at pulling people. He shook his head as he headed toward the bathroom.

“Yeah, it happened right before we left,” Yeonjun explained as he closed his eyes. He shifted on the couch, making himself more comfortable as he continued his explanation, “We met last night, came to my place and I told him that I had an early morning dentist appointment.”

“You really need to stop hooking up with randos, Yeonjun-hyung.”

“Hooking up sounds so crass. I prefer calling a temporary romantic connection,” Yeonjun said as a smile came onto him. He stayed asleep on Beomgyu’s couch, eyes closed and arms wrapped around the sofa pillow. Beomgyu peered out from the bathroom, ready to ask Yeonjun if he should go in and kick Ga-Woon out of the apartment but stopped at the sight of the older man asleep. He decided to hold off on asking Yeonjun more about his exes too – he looked so peaceful asleep.

“Move,” Beomgyu said as he hit Yeonjun’s legs. “Yeonjun-hyung, move a little bit so that I can sit too.”

Sleep clung onto Yeonjun as he moved his legs off the sofa, shifting himself so that Beomgyu could sit. His eyes stayed shut as he adjusted himself to sit up. The strands of his hair were splayed everywhere and Beomgyu giggled at the sight. Beomgyu reached over and tried to tame some of the strands in Yeonjun’s hair, “It’s been four hours. I’m pretty sure your hook-up as left.”

“I slept that long?”

“I’m guessing you didn’t exactly get much sleep last night,” Beomgyu said as he reached for the take-out bags on the coffee table. “I figured letting you sleep would be okay,” he handed Yeonjun a box, “It’s chicken. I got hungry while you were sleeping. Wake up so that we can eat.”

“Aw, I’m touched, Beomgyu,” Yeonjun teased as he fully woke up. He grinned, “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you’re starting to like me more and more.”

Beomgyu rolled his eyes, “Consider it as a bonus for helping track down my exes so quickly.”

“I’m Choi Yeonjun, any task given to me will be taken care of to the best of my abilities,” Yeonjun opened the box of chicken and his lips broadened into a smile. He nodded at Beomgyu, “And you have excellent taste in chicken.”

“I’m Choi Beomgyu, of course I have excellent taste,” Beomgyu teased as he started to eat. As they both began to feast on their food, Beomgyu asked, “Did you get any more information on the rest of the list?”

“Yeah,” Yeonjun said but finished the chicken wing before he continued. He reached for a napkin to wipe the traces of sauce as he said, “A majority of your list is married, by the way. I checked their facebooks. Married with children.”

“Already?”

“You’d be surprised. For some reason, everyone thinks marriage is the end all, be all of life,” Yeonjun shrugged, “I couldn’t imagine that being the end of everything. I got a lot of things that I want to do before I settle down.”

“Things to do or _people_ to do?” Beomgyu’s eyebrow raised skeptically at Yeonjun.

“Both, but seriously, life doesn’t stop when you get married. So, I never understood why people always assume that it’s the end,” Yeonjun sighed, “Anyway, let’s see, I _almost_ found Choi Soobin but number listed was wrong. So, you got to give me a little more time on him.”

There was flicker of amusement in Yeonjun’s expression as he leaned back on Beomgyu’s sofa. Without intending to, Beomgyu’s eyes traced the older man’s features. Even if he decided that he’d never do anything with Yeonjun, he could appreciate him. Beomgyu set the empty chicken box on the coffee table and asked, “Do you ever think you’d date an ex?”

“Me?” Yeonjun’s lips pursed as he thought about it His eyes ran across Beomgyu’s ceiling before he shook his head, “Nah. If we’re exes, then it happened for a reason. I’m not your type of crazy. Err—your branch of ‘ _optimism_ ’.” He turned his head to look over at Beomgyu, “So, when were you going to tell me, Beomgyu?”

“Tell you what?”

“That you played guitar,” Yeonjun said as he hopped off the couch. He navigated past the coffee table and reached for the guitar that leaned against the wall in front of the television, “Pretty rocker boy, Choi Beomgyu? I can see it happening.”

“I’ve been playing since I was a kid. I used to be in a band in college,” Beomgyu explained as he stood up and took the guitar from Yeonjun. He held it in a comfortable position as his fingers strummed a few chords, “One of the guys on the list was the lead singer of the band.”

“Oh, you became that cliché? The guitarist hooking up with the lead singer.”

“We didn’t just hook-up. We actually dated, seriously for half a year,” Beomgyu frowned but returned to playing an abstract melody on the guitar. If he was honest, he would admit that playing guitar had been his first love and that love had never been replicated, by anyone or anything. He stopped strumming the guitar as he set back down, “What’s the longest relationship you’ve had?”

“Two years,” Yeonjun answered far quicker than Beomgyu had expected. In fact, that response had Beomgyu completely surprised. His face must have had the look of confusion painted on it because Yeonjun started to laugh before he carried on, “We dated for two years. It was meant to be a hook-up, you know? But we went back to his place and right on his nightstand was a picture of like 6 year old him dressed up as Prince Charming. He looked so cute, so hopeful.” Yeonjun moved from where he had been standing and sat back on the couch, “So, we started going out after that. I wanted to end it so many times … but every time I tried to break-up with him, I would think back to that hopeful little kid. I just kept imagining trying to tell that little kid that I didn’t want to date his older self anymore. I just couldn’t disappoint him. Eventually, I did and that’s why I just take them back to my place. I can’t get attached to them if I don’t know anything about them.”

“So, you walk around like you don’t care, but you’re the type of person who gets attached so easily and so quickly. You’re such a sap, Yeonjun-hyung,” Beomgyu smiled before he pointed at Yeonjun, “That’s my new favorite thing about you.”

“Oh, shut up,” Yeonjun rolled his eyes as he started to clean up the takeout boxes from their meal. “I’ll have to get you the rest of your information tomorrow. I have rehearsals that I need to get to later.”

* * *

It started to become a daily habit.

After work, Beomgyu would walk up the stairs to the fifth floor and as he ascended the staircase, Yeonjun would pop his head out and greet him. He’d asked Beomgyu how his day had gone and then suggest that if Beomgyu hadn’t eaten, they should get something together. On the days that Yeonjun didn’t offer to go out to get a meal together, he often had ordered take-out prior. It became a daily habit and today was no exception.

“You look like you’ve had a rough day at the office,” Yeonjun looked down from their floor. He leaned against the railing and grinned, “You hungry? I got us burgers with a side of info on your exes.”

“The first good news I’ve heard all day,” Beomgyu called out as he walked up the stairs, “For the burgers, please tel—”

“Don’t worry, there’s no tomatoes,” Yeonjun answered the question Beomgyu didn’t finish asking. He grinned, “I told them to hold the sauces too. I know how picky you get.”

“Thank you,” Beomgyu grinned as he finished his ascend to the fifth floor. “I wish we had an elevator here. On days like this, I deserve an elevator to get to our floor. Why did we have to live on the fifth floor?” He was out of breath by the time he reached Yeonjun’s door, “I’m going to pass out.”

“Don’t pass out in the hallway,” Yeonjun suggested, “You can pass out on my bed or something.” He paused, “Don’t worry, I have clean sheets. I did laundry this morning.”

It surprised Beomgyu how quickly he had become comfortable with Yeonjun. While he’d never admit it out loud, in just a few weeks, he had gotten very attached to the presence of the older man. He walked into Yeonjun’s apartment as if he was in his own. His bag made its way to its usual spot on the counter, next to Yeonjun’s and Beomgyu’s keys.

“You would not believe the day I’ve had,” Beomgyu muttered as he took off his shoes and slipped into his self-appointed house slippers – he had his own pair, one that Yeonjun’s nighttime visitors were not allowed to use. “Work in the music industry, they said. It will be fun, they said. It’s all great until I have fix all of the shitty tracks they keep sending.”

“That sounds awful, Gyu,” Yeonjun said as he held Beomgyu’s burger out to him, “But at least, you’re working in the career that you want to, you know? One step closer to you becoming the biggest producer in all of Korea. Correction, in all of the _world_.”

Beomgyu grabbed the burger from Yeonjun as he sat on Yeonjun’s bed. He adjusted himself to sit cross-legged before he started to eat, “I appreciate the buttering up but you owe me information on one of my many exes.” As he waited for Yeonjun to explain, Beomgyu bit into the burger. His eyes looked around Yeonjun’s apartment, everything seemed very _him_ – it had a flair and style that could easily be read as Yeonjun, but that was just how he was. Beomgyu smiled quietly as he chewed his burger.

“I found one of your exes,” Yeonjun said from where he’d sat on the floor. Between bites of his burger, he reached for a folder and handed it to Beomgyu, “Remember how I mentioned that a lot of your exes were either engaged or _actually_ married? This ex is actually just getting out of a very early divorce.”

The folder was filled with notes and addresses, phone numbers and latest photos – Yeonjun really worked hard to help Beomgyu out, even for something as silly as finding his exes. The gratitude he had for the older man’s dedication wasn’t one he knew how to express easily. Not yet at least. Beomgyu nodded as he flipped through the folders, “It’s a fresh divorce. I wonder how I can do this …should I get a job at his divorce lawyer’s office? Then I can accidentally run into him.”

Yeonjun leaned back, he pressed his back against the bed and stared up at Beomgyu before started to laugh. He shook his head, “You must be really shook up from your bad day at work because that plan sounds awful, Beomgyu.”

“How else am I supposed to run into him?”

“Read the notes,” Yeonjun suggested, “He’s looking to sell his house which means, he’s going to be having an open house. You could just go to the open house.”

“Oh,” Beomgyu blinked, “That’s so much easier than getting a job at his lawyer’s office.” He laughed as he crumpled up his finished burger wrapper. Without much thought, he dropped the wrapper into the takeout bags next to Yeonjun. “This is going much better than I expected it to,” Beomgyu admitted, “I might actually have a date to my brother’s wedding after we finish everything.” He yawned as he stretched his arms upward before he laid back in Yeonjun’s bed.

It _had_ been such a long day at work and Yeonjun’s bed was so comfortable. Beomgyu closed his eyes as he shifted around before he nuzzled against the pillow – it smelled like Yeonjun’s cologne, the one that Beomgyu smelled the first time Yeonjun was in his apartment. He wondered what kind of mattress Yeonjun had. It was so comfortable, so easy to fall asleep on …

It was dark when Beomgyu woke up from his impromptu nap. All he meant to do was close his eyes, just for a moment; he just wanted to rest them but Yeonjun’s stupid bed had to be so comfortable. Beomgyu gently lifted his head from the pillow and that was when he realized that Yeonjun had also fallen asleep. There was a faint blush that crept onto the apples of Beomgyu’s cheeks as he looked at the older man. It was not the first time that Beomgyu had seen Yeonjun sleep – the sofa in Beomgyu’s living room had unofficially become Yeonjun’s second bed, after all – but this was the first time that Beomgyu had ever been this close to him. He’d never noticed the way that Yeonjun’s lips turned into a pout as he slept – it was cute enough to make Beomgyu smile.

“I should get up,” Beomgyu finally muttered to himself but as he attempted to twist himself, he felt Yeonjun’s arm pull him closer. The newfound proximity caused Beomgyu’s eyes to widen and while the shock came through him, he didn’t hate it. Beomgyu moved, trying to make himself comfortable against the older man; he rest his head against Yeonjun’s chest, nuzzled against it as he breathed in silently. It was strange how they fit together so easily. His initial intention to get out of bed was no longer a thought that he wanted to cater to.

“Yeonjun,” Beomgyu finally called out to the older man. He caught the quick flicker of Yeonjun’s eyes, “Hey, I should go, huh?”

“Mm,” sleep was obvious in Yeonjun’s expression and his voice. Beomgyu watched as Yeonjun’s brows knitted together while he tried to wake, but he didn’t. Instead, Yeonjun turned in his sleep and pulled Beomgyu closer, “Sleep more, too tired …comfortable.”

“Oh …,” there were many things that Beomgyu knew he should have done: he should have gotten out of bed, he should have stopped Yeonjun from hugging him tighter, he should have stopped admiring how cute the older man looked asleep …but Beomgyu did none of that. Instead, he let himself be pulled into a tighter embrace and cuddled against Yeonjun. His mind worked through the different scenarios of ‘What if?’ before he finally drifted back into sleep.

When Beomgyu woke up, it was Saturday morning and Yeonjun had already left the bed – thankfully, Beomgyu didn’t have to deal with the awkward ‘Sorry for falling asleep in your bed’ conversation. He rubbed the back of his hand against his eyes – the last traces of slumber being rubbed away as he sat up on Yeonjun’s bed. Beomgyu put his hands on his cheeks as he recalled the night’s events.

“Oh …,” he mumbled as he forced himself to gain composure. If Yeonjun asked about it, Beomgyu would just say he didn’t notice – he was far too tired from work to realize what had happened. Beomgyu nodded in agreement with himself; that was a good plan, a great idea.

The walk from Yeonjun’s room to the kitchen wasn’t very long but as Beomgyu made the trek, it felt longer than usual. He half-expected Yeonjun to pop out and tease him about spending the night over, but that hadn’t happened. Instead, he heard the sizzle of eggs being cooked on the stove.

“Come on, Beomgyu,” Yeonjun called out, “You need to eat up. We’re going to that open house that your ex is having, remember?”

Beomgyu silently leaned against the kitchen counter as he watched Yeonjun cook. He wanted to bring up a conversation from the night before, but he didn’t know how to start it. All he ended up doing was staring as Yeonjun cooked their breakfast. He chewed on his bottom lip as he stared at Yeonjun.

“About last night,” Yeonjun started as he looked over to Beomgyu, “Don’t even think anything of it. We literally just slept on the same bed. Can’t two bros cuddle together without them getting the heebie-jeebies?”

“Yeah, yeah …yeah,” Beomgyu nodded into a slightly disappointed smile. He wasn’t sure what he expected the conversation to be like, but he didn’t expect it to be just pushed off so easily. Beomgyu shook the lingering thoughts off, “You’re right. It was just sleeping on the same bed. No big deal, right?”

“Yeah, exactly,” Yeonjun grinned as he placed the fried egg onto a bowl of rice. He pushed the bowl to Beomgyu, “Eat up, you’ve got an ex-boyfriend to impress, baby.”

* * *

“Okay, you can go now, Yeonjun-hyung,” Beomgyu said as they arrived at the front of the open house. He turned to Yeonjun and tried to start pushing him away, “You should go. I can take it from here. You don’t have to be here when I’m talking to my ex.”

Despite Beomgyu’s attempt, he couldn’t push Yeonjun away. Yeonjun grinned as he looked at Beomgyu, “I’m going to safely assume that there’s a very big reason that you don’t want me to watch you talk to your ex but luckily for me, my schedule’s got no shows until later tonight. So, I’ll watch until you get your date with your ex.”

“No, you should leave, Yeonjun-hyung,” Beomgyu insisted again. This time, he stressed his syllables, “You should leave. As soon as possible.” He attempted to push Yeonjun again but that wasn’t helping; why did Yeonjun have to work out for?

“Beomgyu? Choi Beomgyu?” A voice called out. The man walked over and smiled as he approached, “It really is you, Beomgyu.”

At the man’s smile, Beomgyu returned it with a smile just as charming. He glared at Yeonjun before he took a deep breath. This time, as he spoke, he had a very thick, _Busan_ accent on – it was so thick that Yeonjun did a double take the more that Beomgyu spoke.

“It has been awhile hasn’t it,” Beomgyu smiled as he tried his best to maintain the accent. It had been so tempting to fall back into his regular Daegu accent but he had gotten this far, he worked hard to fight the urge. He coughed as he feigned ignorance, “What are you doing here?”

“Oh, it’s my open house,” his ex said, “Were you looking? You and your boyfriend?”

“I was looking,” Beomgyu carried on with his fake Busan accent. He shook his head as he looked at Yeonjun and then back at his ex, “Boyfriend? No, this is Yeonjun-hyung and he was just leaving.”

“Actually,” Yeonjun chimed in, “No, I’m not. I’ve got nowhere important to be until for awhile.”

At Yeonjun’s words, Beomgyu’s eyes sharpened into a full glare. He could not believe that Yeonjun was still here. Beomgyu struggled to juggle the conversation with Yeonjun present, especially at how easily Yeonjun was throwing side remarks and jokes. He cleared his throat and gave Yeonjun one final glare which was the final warning that Yeonjun took.

“Well, as fun as it is,” Yeonjun smiled, “I’ll leave you two to catch up. I’ve got a thing to get to. Have fun, Beomgyu. I’ll see you later.”

“He seems nice,” Beomgyu’s ex spoke as he watched Yeonjun walk away, “I really thought that was your boyfriend, Beomgyu. You two look good together.”

Beomgyu shook his head, “No, he’s not. Yeonjun-hyung’s not the type to be interested in relationships.” The final line was more of a reminder to himself than an explanation to the man in front of him. The thoughts of last night’s events lingered in the back of Beomgyu’s mind, after all. He blinked the thoughts away as he turned his attention back to his ex, “You busy right now? Want to go grab a drink?”

“Yeah, I’d like that.”

“You’re back so soon?” Yeonjun asked from the top of the staircase. He looked down as Beomgyu climbed up the stairs, “I thought you two would have gone out to get dinner or something? Strike up a relationship and relight that flame of romance?”

Beomgyu looked up at Yeonjun with the most upset expression. He leaned against the railing as he looked up, then let out the heaviest sigh that he could muster before he continued up the stairs, “It was going well! We went out to get a drink, but my Busan accent is rusty. The more we talked, the quicker I slipped into my Daegu accent.”

“And what’s the problem with that?” Yeonjun asked, “The Daegu accent’s pretty hot, Beomgyu.”

“For you, sure,” Beomgyu said as he finally made it to the top of the stairs. He looked at Yeonjun, then threw his jacket at the older man, “That ex is _only_ interested in people from Busan. I totally forgot about it until I saw his face when I switched to my Daegu one.”

Yeonjun caught Beomgyu’s jacket and folded it nicely before he hung it over his shoulder. “I’m going to be honest with you,” he said as he followed into Beomgyu’s apartment. He put Beomgyu’s jacket on the sofa’s arm before he sat down, “I don’t think you should date a guy who’s going to make you hide a part of yourself. Your Daegu accent’s part of you, Gyu-ah. It’s not something you should ever hide.”

Beomgyu sat down on the sofa next to Yeonjun. He rest his head on Yeonjun’s shoulder and sighed, “Why can’t my exes be accepting like you, Yeonjun-hyung? They’re all supposed to have turned out better with time, but they’re all just disappointing now.”

“That’s why they’re your exes, Beomgyu,” Yeonjun pointed out, “They didn’t work out with you for the simple reason that you deserve better.”

“Maybe,” Beomgyu sighed, “Either way, that date sucked and I would never want to go out with him again. I hope his open house has termites or something.”

“We could egg the house,” Yeonjun teased, “I’m willing to do it for you, Beomgyu. I’ll tease and teepee it. I do have a reputation as a troublemaker, you know.”

“I appreciate it,” Beomgyu stared at his guitar. “When I date him, I couldn’t even play my guitar. He kept telling me it wasn’t worth pursuing music.”

“That’s dumb,” Yeonjun said as he stretched his arms upward and put the arm around Beomgyu’s shoulders, “Especially since you’re a music producer now. Music ended up working out for you because you’re good at it.” Yeonjun smiled, “You have to let me hear you play one day, Gyu.”

Beomgyu looked at Yeonjun and nodded. He might have said it jokingly earlier, but really, why couldn’t his exes have been like Yeonjun? It could have worked out so easily if they were as kind or as supportive or even as funny as Yeonjun …or maybe, it was just because it was Yeonjun. Beomgyu smiled as he looked away, “One day, I’ll play you a private show, hyung. It’ll be the most fun that you’ve ever had.”

“I’ll hold you to that, Beomgyu,” Yeonjun smiled and then gave a kind gaze to Beomgyu. “I’d offer to get dinner for us, but I’ve actually got to head out to work in a few. So, I’ll have to take you out to dinner tomorrow night. You can’t miss it either.”

“Yeonjun-hyung, I thought I told you that we—”

“Choi Soobin will be there,” Yeonjun cut off Beomgyu with a smirk, “It took me some time because I kept getting a wrong number but I found him for you. Tomorrow night, you’ll get to meet the ‘one that _almost_ got away’.”

“Yeah?” Beomgyu turned to face Yeonjun. Although Beomgyu smiled, he had quietly hoped that Yeonjun wouldn’t have been able to find the rest of his exes but Yeonjun put all that effort into this. He closed his eyes for a second, an attempt to change the expression he had one before he nodded, “Tomorrow night, we’re coming for you, Choi Soobin.”

“And if he does anything weird or makes you sad, I’ll punch him for you,” Yeonjun said as he rose his arms in the air, flexing them as much as he could. He grinned at Beomgyu, “I’ll be your guardian angel.”

* * *

For someone who was usually shameless, Beomgyu felt nervous as he and Yeonjun waited for Soobin to show up. It was only supposed to be Beomgyu at tonight’s dinner, but …he convinced Yeonjun to accompany him for tonight. His reached for the chopsticks and twisted them around in his hands; he placed them back on the table, then reached for the napkin and crumpled it around in his hands.

“Relax,” Yeonjun put his hand on top of Beomgyu’s hands, brushing his thumb to ward away the nervousness. He took the napkin out of Beomgyu’s hands and placed it back on the table, “How are you going to make him fall back in love with you, if you’re getting all nervous like this, Beomgyu? Come on, you’ve got this.” Yeonjun gave him a reassuring smile, “Relax, okay? I’m right here.”

Although Beomgyu nodded in agreement, he still like a bundle of nerves. He wasn’t nervous to mess up this reunion, he was worried that it would be successful. If this was successful and Soobin was his second chance …would that mean that Yeonjun would stop spending time with him? Would the time they spent together change? Wasn’t Yeonjun only here to help Beomgyu find his exes …but that couldn’t be right. There was no way Yeonjun was only here to help Beomgyu find his exes – not with the way his hand held Beomgyu’s, not with how reassuring he was.

“Thanks,” was all Beomgyu could lamely say to Yeonjun before he took another deep breath as he waited for Soobin to come in.

When Soobin walked in, Beomgyu blinked and let out a laugh. The laugh took both Yeonjun and Soobin by surprise. Beomgyu’s laugh rang out loudly, it echoed through the restaurant before he finally let out a sigh of relief.

“That’s not the greeting I expected,” Soobin said as he took the seat in front of Beomgyu. While his hair was blue now, he still looked the way that Beomgyu remembered him – a cute, little rabbit …that was still _too_ tall and still _too_ kind. “It’s good to see you too, Beomgyu,” Soobin smiled and then nodded at Yeonjun, “You must be Yeonjun, right? We talked on the phone a little.”

“Yeah, thanks for agreeing to come and meet us so quickly,” Yeonjun said politely, “Beomgyu wanted to catch up with you an—”

“I need to go to the restroom,” Beomgyu said as he shot up from his seat. He cleared his throat and pointed to the direction it was at, “I’ll be right back.” He paused and glared at both of them, “Don’t talk shit about me while I’m not here.” He playfully hit Yeonjun’s arm, “Especially you.”

When Beomgyu returned, their dinner plates had already been placed on the tables. Yeonjun had ordered for him and while Beomgyu normally did not let anyone order for him, the older man had been cautious of his particular tastes. He smiled as he sat down then pointed at Yeonjun and Soobin, “You two totally talked shit about me, didn’t you? Didn’t you?”

“So,” Soobin started quietly as he watched Beomgyu walk to the bar. He waited until Beomgyu started to order before he asked, “Are you Beomgyu’s boyfriend?”

Yeonjun shook his head and laughed, “No, I’m not but we are trying to find him one.” He leaned back in his seat as he watched Beomgyu order them a round of drinks; amusement shimmered in Yeonjun’s eyes as he quickly noticed how enamored the bartender was with the younger man. His attention turned back to Soobin, “What turned you two into exes?”

“He did,” Soobin quickly responded. He nodded as if he was going over their memories together, “Sometimes, Beomgyu has a tendency to think he doesn’t deserve the good things in front of him.”

Yeonjun knew that.

Soobin continued, “He’ll find ways to deny the things in front of him and get fixated on the little things that shouldn’t matter. Even if you try and talk him out of it, he’ll just keep trying to convince himself that he doesn’t deserve it.”

Yeonjun knew that too.

“But the thing is, he’s the type to do what he can to keep others happy,” Soobin continued, “If there’s even a small chance for someone else to be happy, he’d find a way to help them.”

Yeonjun also knew that too.

“He’s full of contradictions,” Yeonjun finally chimed in. He smiled fondly at the younger man at the bar, “But that’s what makes him so interesting.”

“Are you sure you’re _not_ Beomgyu’s boyfriend?” Soobin teased.

“I’m not,” Yeonjun grinned. He didn’t say the ‘ _yet_ ’ out loud.

* * *

“So …,” Yeonjun was the one who broke their silent ascent to their apartment floor.

“So?” Beomgyu said as he trudged behind Yeonjun. He really hated the stairs – why couldn’t there have been an elevator here? Beomgyu leaned against the railing of the staircase. “Yeonjun-hyung,” Beomgyu whined, “Why do we need to walk up the stairs for? Why couldn’t there have been—”

“Here,” Yeonjun walked back down, “I’ll carry you up the stairs. Just get on my back.”

“Oh.”

“Hurry up,” Yeonjun said, “Before I change my mind, Beomgyu.

As Beomgyu climbed onto Yeonjun’s back, he carefully hugged the older man; his arms wrapped around Yeonjun’s neck as he made himself comfortable. “It’s three more flights of stairs, Yeonjun-hyung,” Beomgyu reminded, “Are you sure you’ll be okay carrying me?”

“I work out for a reason, Beomgyu,” Yeonjun chimed in – the pride in his voice told Beomgyu that Yeonjun was smiling. “Besides, you weight like nothing, Gyu. I can carry you like nothing.”

“I’m not going to take as a compliment,” Beomgyu pouted as he rest his chin on Yeonjun’s shoulder.

“As I was saying earlier,” Yeonjun continued, “It seemed like you and Soobin were hitting it off well. Like I wasn’t even there. Maybe, you and Soobin were a better match than you think?”

“Nope,” Beomgyu muttered, “I don’t think so.”

“You two had so many inside jokes,” Yeonjun pointed out as he continued up the stairs, “You laughed so loudly, Beomgyu. Anyone could have fallen in love with you from it.”

“No,” Beomgyu shook his head as he nuzzled his face into Yeonjun’s shoulder, “We’re good as friends, Yeonjun-hyung. I don’t think Soobin and I would go back to dating again.” Not that there was anything wrong with Soobin. Soobin was fine, almost perfect compared to everyone else that was on Beomgyu’s list of exes …but he wasn’t what Beomgyu wanted. At least, not anymore.

“Beomgyu, you’re making it really hard for us to find someone on your list of exes,” Yeonjun laughed as he walked up the next flight of stairs, “Here I thought you and Soobin were immediately going to fall in love and rekindle that spark of romance.”

“Maybe the spark just wasn’t there anymore. Maybe, I’m the problem with all of these exes.”

“Oh, don’t say that, Beomgyu. You’re not a problem,” Yeonjun shook his head as he continued up the steps. He stopped for a moment and both he and Beomgyu listened – they could hear Panchito barking. The two of them shared a look, then shuddered before Yeonjun continued up the stairs. “Don’t ever say you’re the problem, Beomgyu because you’re not.”

“Well, I’m your problem now.”

“I can work with that.”

“I mean to tell you earlier, but I found another one of your exes,” Yeonjun said as he let Beomgyu off his back. He made sure to carefully adjust himself so that Beomgyu wouldn’t fall. After Beomgyu got off, he rolled his neck, stretching it for a second before he continued, “He’s in Daegu now. You said you’d take a car or a train, but not a plane, remember? So, if you’re up for it, I’ll text you his details.”

“Oh,” Beomgyu nodded, “Sure. I’ll go meet him …my mom’s been asking me to come home for a little bit anyway.” He bit the inside of his cheek and wondered if it was too much to ask Yeonjun to come to Daegu with him. “Hyung,” Beomgyu said as he leaned against his door, “Why are you helping so much with the exes thing? I thought you thought it was stupid.”

“It _is_ stupid,” Yeonjun said as he leaned against the railing in front of Beomgyu. “I really don’t think your body count matters and I don’t think tracking down people you broke up is going to rekindle anything. You guys didn’t work out for a reason,” he shrugged before he put his hands into his pockets, “But for some reason, it’s important to you. So, I’m doing my best to help you out with it, Beomgyu.”

 _Oh_.

Yeonjun ran his hand through his hair as he looked up. He shook his head before he smiled at Beomgyu, “Don’t worry though, I’m entertained as is. You make things fun, Beomgyu. I like spending time with you.”

“Me too, Yeonjun-hyung,” Beomgyu said quickly. He let out a soft cough to mask the eagerness in his answer. He smiled at Yeonjun, “Well …good night, Yeonjun-hyung.”

“Yeah, good night, Beomgyu.”

* * *

The trip to Daegu was easy enough to book – when he told his mom he would come for the weekend; she was more than happy to make sure that everything would taken care. Beomgyu had missed the way his mother doted on him. He couldn’t wait to have a homecooked meal. The train ride hadn’t been long – he swore that the air smelled differently the moment that he got off of it. The air in Daegu was so much fresher than the air in Seoul, regardless of what Yeonjun had said.

 _Speak of the Devil_ , Beomgyu thought as he read the name on his caller ID. "Why is his face so stupid in this picture?" Beomgyu laughed at the photo on display - he should have asked how Yeonjun figured out his passcode, but that was for a different argument.

"Took you long enough to answer," was the greeting that Yeonjun gave Beomgyu. He laughed, "I was starting to worry that your tractor crashed, and I'd have to take care of my apartment and your apartment. I totally can't afford the rent for both of them."

"First of all, it was a train, not a tractor. Unfortunately for you, I survived the train ride," Beomgyu replied as he took a seat on a nearby bench. His brother was on his way to pick him up - twenty minutes until he showed up. "Besides, I don't think you'll be able to find any tenants who would want to live next to you."

"None of them would be as creative as you are when it comes to clearing out my one-nighters," Yeonjun admitted with a laugh, "The one from last week was my favorite. I don't know how you do it, Choi Beomgyu. You are a miracle."

"It's me, did you expect any less?" Beomgyu laughed and then pointed out, "It's not like I've had to do it recently. I kind of miss being creative like that - nothing says brilliant like kicking your overnight stays out before work. Did you suddenly close up shop?"

"No," Yeonjun spoke slowly, "I've found something else entertaining. It's more fun, I like it more than that." His laugh came out clear, even on the phone. "Besides, I called because I found some information on your ex-boyfriend number 13."

"Num--is that running water?" Beomgyu's brows furrowed, "Where are you?"

"In your bathroom. I'm taking a bath." The sound of the faucet turned off. "I didn't expect you to be such a bathbomb guy though," Yeonjun muttered. He must have been moving around, Beomgyu could hear the water slosh around. "Hold on, I'm sending you a selca."

Just like Yeonjun promised, Beomgyu got the notification and the moment he opened it, he immediately started to laugh. Not once did Beomgyu ever expect to receive a photo of Yeonjun, in his bathtub, covered in bubbles with his hair pulled back in the bear headband Beomgyu used for facewash purposes. Even with the stupid duck-face and peace sign, Yeonjun was still charming.

Beomgyu laughed as he hit save on the photo.

“You’re ridiculous and you owe me new bathbombs," he said as he brought the phone back up to his ear. "You owe me like thirty new bathbombs for making me witness that atrocious picture."

"Ah, you love it," Yeonjun said as he hummed a song that Beomgyu was a thousand percent sure was on his playlists. "Like I said though, the reason I called was because I found information ex-number thirteen. I found him, so we can meet up with him and see if you two are still compatible when you get back from Daegu."

In all honesty, Beomgyu wasn't sure if he wanted to meet another ex-boyfriend but he knew he had to. It was part of the whole plan. Luckily, as bizarre as the plan was (see: finding all of his ex-boyfriends to find the one before he reaches the body count that would make him undesirable - at least, according to the study that Taehyun brought up), it had been fun to do it with Yeonjun. Even if Yeonjun was ridiculous, sometimes. Most of the time ...all of the time.

"I'll be back in two days. Don't burn my apartment down," Beomgyu warned, "If you do, I'm taking yours."

“Did you finally find a date for your brother’s wedding?” His mother asked the question that everyone at the dinner table was interested in. Beomgyu rolled his eyes as he reached for the japchae. He shook his head and said, “Not yet, it’s hard to find a date.”

“I’m sure you could just ask one of your friends to go with you,” his mother suggested, “A date doesn’t have to entail romance. Just someone you could have fun with.”

“That’s true,” Beomgyu said as he took a piece from every single dish that his mother had made. Homecooked meals were a rarity in the city – everything was always too busy, too fast-paced and always ordered in. Nothing beat his mother’s cooking. “Maybe I do have someone I could ask to be my date,” Beomgyu said before helped himself to the best cooking in the world. Every bite was the most delicious that he’d ever had – _Yeonjun-hyung would definitely enjoy this_ , he thought to himself, _And mom would love the way Yeonjun-hyung eats, how enthusiastic he gets_.

“Eat as much as you can, Beomgyu,” his mother smiled, “I missed being able to feed you. I’ll pack some up for you take home too.”

Beomgyu nodded enthusiastically with a bright smile, “Thank you, mom. Love you!”

While the meal with his mother went happily, the date with his ex in Daegu did not.

“Oh, really?” Beomgyu asked, half-interested in the story that the man in front of him had been telling for the past ten minutes. The story was probably not as boring as his ex made it seem – _Yeonjun-hyung probably could have made the story more interesting, he always told things with so much excitement and enthusiasm_. Beomgyu moved the uneaten tomatoes around on his plate. He moved them to the edge of plate before he looked up at his dinner date and asked, “Do you want these tomatoes?”

The man’s face scrunched in confusion. He tilted his head to the side and let out a soft scoff, “They’re just tomatoes, Beomgyu. You should eat them, they’re healthy. Very good for you.”

“Oh,” Beomgyu pressed his lips together in disappointment _. Yeonjun-hyung would have eaten the tomatoes for him_ – he always ate the tomatoes or whatever food Beomgyu didn’t like. Beomgyu shrugged, “They are healthy, but I just don’t like them. They’re just weird.”

“No, that’s weird,” the man said as he shook his head, “It’s just tomatoes. Why are you so picky?”

“I don’t like them,” Beomgyu repeated. _Yeonjun-hyung never thought it was weird that Beomgyu had preferences_ – he was always careful about them whenever he ordered food for the two of them.

That was the thing about epiphanies, they would come unexpectedly.

“You know what,” Beomgyu said as he set his utensils on his plate. He looked up at his ex and gave the most polite smile that he could muster, “I think we call it quits here. Thank you for having dinner with me, but I have to go.” He wiped his lips with the napkin, then set it down on the table. “Have good night,” Beomgyu said with a bow, “Have a good rest of your life.”

* * *

“I thought you weren’t coming back until tomorrow night, Beomgyu,” Yeonjun called out as he leaned on the railing of the fifth floor. Even from where Beomgyu was, he could see that flustered expression on Yeonjun’s face. “You should have called me or texted me that you were coming home earlier,” Yeonjun’s voice sounded more frantic than before.

“Did I interrupt something?” Beomgyu asked, slightly disappointed as he realized that Yeonjun might have had someone over. Maybe Beomgyu had been wrong. When he reached the fifth floor, he rose an eyebrow as he realized that the apartment Yeonjun had been coming in and out of was his own. Beomgyu put his hand on his hips and sharpened his eyes into a glare, “What are you doing in my apartment? I swear, Yeonjun-hyung, if you had someone over in my apartment, I’m going to completely murder y—”

“I wouldn’t do that,” Yeonjun interrupted as he stepped out of Beomgyu’s apartment, “I’m not going to do anything that would hurt you, Gyu.”

It was then that Beomgyu realized that Yeonjun had his guitar case over his shoulder. “What are you doing with my guitar?” Beomgyu asked as he side-stepped around Yeonjun – he threw his overnight bag into his apartment before he turned to Yeonjun. “Hyung, I’m asking this again, “What are you doing with my guitar?”

Yeonjun’s lips curled into the brightest smile that Beomgyu had ever seen. He held a hand out to Beomgyu, “Come on, I’ll show you.”

“It better not be anything weird,” Beomgyu warned as he closed his apartment door. He took Yeonjun’s hand and let the older man lead the way.

Although he let Yeonjun lead the way, Beomgyu made sure to whine the entire time that they were headed up the flights of stairs – “ _Why are there always so many stairs, Yeonjun-hyung? Why did I have to live somewhere where there wasn’t an elevator? Why didn’t I just pay more for rent?”_

“If you didn’t move here,” Yeonjun grinned, “You wouldn’t have met me.”

And that was the fact that Beomgyu didn’t want to dispute.

Beomgyu stopped whining as he continued to follow Yeonjun to the top of their apartment. When they reached the door to the rooftop, Beomgyu rose an eyebrow as he looked at Yeonjun. “I thought we weren’t allowed on the rooftop?” He tilted his head to the side, “Didn’t you get the memo that said we weren’t supposed to be up here?”

“Yeah, I wrote that memo,” Yeonjun said as he walked behind Beomgyu, “I’m going to cover your eyes.”

“Why?”

“It’s a surprise,” Yeonjun said before he grinned, “Just trust me, okay?” Before Beomgyu could protest, his vision was covered by Yeonjun’s hands. Beomgyu heard Yeonjun unlock the door to the roof and he felt Yeonjun push him forward; Beomgyu walked cautiously as they crossed the doorframe. The breath of the night air brushed against his face as they kept walking. “Okay,” Beomgyu heard Yeonjun say as he took his hands of.

Beomgyu turned around to look at Yeonjun but as he did, he saw a very entertaining set-up. There was microphone stand with an amp placed next to it – it was the amp from Beomgyu’s apartment, but he wasn’t going to argue about the semantics of it. There were lights strung above them, with a majority of them rounded in the center to spotlight where the microphone was. There were outdoor couches, placed around the microphone and amp.

“Surprise,” Yeonjun grinned as he put the guitar case on one of the couches. He smiled at Beomgyu, “Remember when I asked you to play guitar for me?”

Beomgyu laughed as he reached for the guitar case that Yeonjun had set down. He opened it and as he hooked the guitar strap on. “Alright,” Beomgyu walked to center stage as he plugged his guitar into the amp. He waited for Yeonjun to take the seat in front of him before he nodded with a smile. “Choi Yeonjun,” Beomgyu smirked as he pointed at Yeonjun, “Are you ready for your private show?”

Yeonjun clapped his hands together. He whooped and cheered, “Yeah! Choi Beomgyu!”

While Beomgyu knew that Yeonjun was ready for some kind of rock show, that was not what Beomgyu had played. Instead, Beomgyu played the first notes to “FERGALICIOUS”. As he strummed the guitar, he caught the marvelous sight of Yeonjun laughing before the older man got up and started to dance around Beomgyu.

“ _Listen up, y’all, ‘cause this is it, the beat that I’m bangin’ is de-li-cious,”_ Yeonjun sang as he dance around Beomgyu. While Beomgyu played the guitar, he couldn’t stop the smile and laughter from coming out – Yeonjun would be the type of person to fully enjoy anything and everything. “ _Fergalicious definition make them boys go loco. They want my treasure, so they get their pleasures from my photo_ ~ _You could see me, you can’t squeeze me. I ain’t easy, I ain’t sleazy._ ”

There were different ways that people recognized that they loved someone and for Beomgyu, it was the ridiculous way that Yeonjun was singing and dancing to ‘Fergalicious’ in the moonlight as he played the guitar.

“ _To the D to the E to the L I C I O U S_ ,” as Yeonjun reached the end of the song, he flopped down on the outdoor sofa. He started laughing, uncontrollably laughing as he clutched his sides. Beomgyu put his guitar back into its case before he sat down next to Yeonjun. Their laughter filled the night air as they sat on the sofa together. Beomgyu leaned against Yeonjun, “Why do you know the entirety of Fergalicious?”

“Excuse me,” Yeonjun said with seriousness, “It’s Fergie, Beomgyu. It’s Fergie. How can I not know the lyrics?” He put an arm around Beomgyu, “Besides, you can’t say anything, you know how to play the whole song, Gyu.”

“I mean, you said it yourself, Yeonjun-hyung,” Beomgyu turned to Yeonjun and smiled, “It’s Fergie, Fergie.”

Beomgyu breathed in quietly as he adjusted himself, leaning closer against Yeonjun. He licked his bottom lip nervously, there were words that he wanted to say but as he looked over at Yeonjun, they wouldn’t come out.

“Hey,” Yeonjun chimed in, “How was your date with that guy?”

“Oh,” Beomgyu frowned, “It was awful. Like so bad. I don’t even want to talk about it.”

“That bad, huh?”

“It was so bad that at one point, I wanted to throw myself into the Han River,” Beomgyu sighed dramatically as he closed his eyes, “I was so bored, Yeonjun-hyung. And! And! And he tried to make me eat tomatoes, hyung.”

Yeonjun gasped dramatically, “Not the tomatoes, Beomgyu.”

“I know,” Beomgyu rolled his eyes, “Exactly why I wanted to toss myself into the Han River.”

“You’re insane,” Beomgyu stared at Yeonjun, disbelief evident in his eyes before he shook his head. “Unbelieve and stupid, just stupid,” and while Beomgyu berated the older man, there was no immediate response. Instead, there was the slow grow of a smile that played on Yeonjun’s lips. Beomgyu glared at him and repeated, “I am not about to jump into the Han River with you.”

“You keep saying that, but I don’t hear any good reasons why you shouldn’t,” Yeonjun’s eyes held a mischievous glint to the as he took a step toward Beomgyu, “I know things didn’t work out with number seventeen?”

“Twelve,” Beomgyu corrected, “He was only number twelve.”

“Okay, fine,” Yeonjun rolled his eyes, “Things didn’t work out with number twelves and that’s all the more reason why we should do this.” He put his hand on Beomgyu’s shoulder, “Consider this a baptism? The rebirth of Beomgyu, absolved from all of the sins of his past exes?”

“You’re impossible and that’s a stupid idea.”

“No, it’s the best idea,” Yeonjun’s grin widened as he unzipped his fuzzy brown jacket. He began to sing, “ _Beomgyu and I are about to jump into the Han River ~ Han River_ ~” He unzipped his jacket and tossed it aside. He rose his eyebrows at Beomgyu, “Come on, Beomgyu.” Yeonjun tossed his jacket aside as he began to strip his t-shirt off, “Come on, Beomgyu. You know you want to join me.”

Beomgyu sighed as he looked around. It was late enough that they were the only ones out here. While Beomgyu wanted to say no, there was something about Yeonjun that made the impulsive decisions fun …and that was how Beomgyu and Yeonjun stripped down to their boxers and stood at the edge of the Han River.

“I can’t believe we’re doing this,” Beomgyu repeated as he felt the chilly night air blow against them. He shook his head, “I can’t believe you talked me into this.”

Yeonjun looked over to Beomgyu as that easy smile came onto him; it was a smile that Beomgyu had become familiar with, the one with the soft fondness that no one else got. He held his hand out to Beomgyu, “Do you trust me, Beomgyu?”

Beomgyu took Yeonjun’s hand into his and nodded, “Of course, I trust you, Yeonjun-hyung. I trust you more than anything, more than anyone.”

Yeonjun’s eyes met Beomgyu’s and Beomgyu’s eyes locked on to Yeonjun’s.

There was a secret in their smiles, one that they both seemed to understand.

“Ready?” Yeonjun grinned as started running toward the Han River. Without hesitation, Beomgyu ran with him, right into the river.

“I can’t believe someone stole my shirt and jacket,” Beomgyu whined when they returned to his apartment. He hugged himself; he wasn’t cold, Yeonjun had been kind enough to lend him that brown fuzzy jacket, but he wanted to be dramatic. He shook his head, “People these days.”

“It’s because everything just looks good on you,” Yeonjun teased.

“Well,” Beomgyu grinned as he looked up at Yeonjun, “I’m keeping this jacket, Yeonjun-hyung. I think it looks better on me.”

“You know, it’s funny,” Yeonjun grinned as he walked towards Beomgyu. His fingers reached for the zipper of the jacket, “Everyone always steals my shirts and jackets.”

Beomgyu took a breath as he watched Yeonjun’s fingers play with the zipper. He felt his cheeks grow warm at their proximity, “Well, if you stopped hooking up with randoms, you won’t have all those people taking your shirts and jackets, Yeonjun-hyung.”

“So, you’re saying that if I stopped fooling around with others,” Yeonjun gently tugged on the zipper, “Then people would stop taking my things.” Beomgyu watched the smirk grow on Yeonjun’s lips, but his eyes held a seriousness as he looked into Beomgyu’s eyes. As much as Beomgyu wanted to respond, he felt the words get catch in his throat. “Well,” Yeonjun smiled at Beomgyu, “Maybe, after tonight, I’ll stop hooking up with random people …”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

“Why?”

“Because, Choi Beomgyu,” Yeonjun smirked, “I’ve found the person that’s worth giving all of that up for. It’s as easy as that.”

“And who is that person?” Beomgyu asked nervously as he leaned in closer. His eyes looked at Yeonjun’s lips before he looked up at him. Beomgyu took a deep breath before he decided to close the gap between them himself. He leaned in, gently pressing his lips against Yeonjun’s. Without hesitation, he placed his arms around Yeonjun’s shoulders, pulling himself to the older man. He was thankful that Yeonjun’s arms slid around his waist and held him up; he felt himself melting into their kiss.

“I think you already know,” Yeonjun grinned when they pulled away from each other.

Beomgyu might have been worried about his body count earlier, but he had learned that those numbers don’t matter anymore. Not when he knew he was Yeonjun’s number one now and Yeonjun was his number one.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! It was a slow burn, wasn’t it? This was completely out of my element, so I hope that it was entertaining to read!
> 
> Appreciate that you made it to the end though!
> 
> See you in the next series, fam ~ ❤️


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